can't get closed down!

When I am trying to restart or close down my computer, if I select this action at the Start menu nothing appears on screen and I do not have any options showing. The only way I can get this done is to select 'ctrl, alt and del' and take it from there. Another problem, which may or may not be related, is every time I boot up the computer it tells me that it has found my 2 new printers and cannot install them! the printers are working perfectly and no matter how many times I uninstall and reinstall them I get the same messages every time.I am running XP Professional with 512 MB Ram and everything else is 100%

There are any number of reasons why closedown fails, and one of these, I suspect, is the cause of your printer problem as well. There are a couple of things you can try. From <Start><Run> type SFC /Scannow. This will check all the important files on your C:\ drive for errors - you should have your install CD ready on case required. If this does not work, insert the install CD and reboot. The install will restart and you will be given the opportunity to run a repair or an install. Choose the formaer and see what this achieves.

have already tried the system file check with no success - have been reluctant to try the second suggestion as las time I ran this I lost a lot of my files - however I will do a backup and run the repair and keep my fingers crossed

Hi TN,Try this for the two wizards,right click My Computer-properties-System Properties-Advanced-Environmental Variables- -add a new system variable (cut and paste this, without the inverted commas)

"Devmgr_Show_Nonpresent_Devices" and a value of 1.

Right click My Computer-Manage-Device Manager- View-Show hidden Devices (the new entry really shows them, instead of some of them)) and uninstall any extra printers that you dont have. As well as phantom printers I found a load of other references to things like monitors, over 20! that I didn't have and got rid of them too. Don't go mad, but if you know for sure you dont have it, it can go. it seems to be a by-product of manufacturers installing volume copies of OS. The start button problem, sorry no definative answer, tried using Classic Start menu? right click start-properties -classic, or make a desktop short-cut direct to the shutdown process, I'm trying to remember how, there's a thread somewhere, or else why not Hibernate -control panel-power options-hibernate- enable, that saves a bit of a wait... good luck, hope this helps .ps imho sfc scannow isnt all you can do...

Squareeye: Ran your programme - was amazed at the number of deletions I could safely carry out! Many thanks for this (one of my printers was showing 3 times!)However the entry that I should delete in the registry in your second suggestion is not there!!!So to-day I try the repair Windows installationSincere thanks for all the help from Xania and yourself

I think the new hardware wizard finds the phantom devices,so they are best got rid of. Maybe your desktop is corrupted, if the problem isnt present logged onto another account, this may be the case.You could create a new account move all your stuff to it (remember emails, addressbook and favourites) and if the new desktop works and you are sure that all you need is transferred then delete the old account. I put "shortcut to shutdown" in google, some instructions are in this link,